March 30, 2010

Just came back from Shanghai on Saturday. While researching in certain interesting design shop I found this range of notebook with very nice covers. They are called Imaginote and made in Shanghai.

I like the paper despite the binding is a bit coarsely done. Most of the range is like novels and they lie flat when opened as well. I'm gonna see if they are worth appearing in our stores, will put them into rough use for a few weeks. The cute little deer you asked? It is made in Korea by cplay.

I personally don't use correction tapes, in fact I hate to see a white blotch covering up mistakes, metaphorically also. I don't know about you, I guess most people in business don't really need correction tapes anymore, if it is not the case with you, tell me about it. I'm assuming a lot of students use them though, coz whenever new design comes out, they are selling like hot cakes.

This time Pentel released a new version called "Crystyle" which is an international version of Japanese domestic "Jewelish". They are now selling in city'super and LOG-ON at HK$24 per piece, each with 6 meters of 5mm width white tape. Oh well, just when we started to sell these "new" correction tapes, Pentel is releasing an even newer series called "Twinkline", I guess they will be in our shops during back to school this year then.

March 18, 2010

Here comes the new Moleskine Folio products arriving stores soon. ITOYA will be the first to have a global preview event on 23rd March 2010, while city'super is working with Moleskine to have a fun way to peek at Folio and other stuffs in people's bags starting in mid-May 2010.

I'm not going to go through the complete line up here, I will be skipping the 2-rings binder and binder set which consists of expandable pocket, tabbed dividers etc. Instead I'll tell you what I think after using some of them for the past few days.

The most impressive is the smart looking slim document holder simply called "Folder". It is made with the same material of the soft cover notebook, so it gives you the soft touch of leather with a layer of paper lining. You can easily carry a 100 sheets of 100 gsm A4 or letter size paper despite its slimness. Believe me this looks real smart in meetings, especially when you open the flap like an envelope to pull out a nicely printed document. Priced at HK$165, expensive yes, but it gives you the professional look you may need in presentations.

The next Folio product I like is the A4 Print Paper in ROUNDED CORNERS! I don't know about you but I love rounded corner photos a lot and this extends to cards and papers. This tiny aesthetic element seems to elevate what you want to show to a new level, well, to me. I have very nice result writing with fine nib fountain pen and with Tradio fibre pen from Pentel, no bleed at all, but don't expect to use the back side of the paper once used. Did I say it is CREAM in color? Realize the background color of my Scription blog? Oh and I have a cream color Strida bike too :) Compatible with laser or inkjet printers, it comes in packs of 50 sheets of 100 gsm papers. HK$115 per pack, which rounds up HK$2.3 per page. It costs to look good, I think they should put a Moleskine watermark on these papers.

2 other new products are called Folio Tools. They are pocket sized Memo Cards and StickNotes, both comes in black paper jacket. I like the Memo Cards' 200 gsm cream colored, rounded corners paper, which can be used as presentation cue cards, to-do list etc, but I'm expecting to see people come up with creative ideas using them. I mean think about it, they are Moleskine Cards! The package comes with 10 ruled and 10 squared cards but they are blank on the back. The down side of this is that ink or water based pigments don't settle into the paper that well, sort of like the Moleskine Sketch Book type of paper. Phew, HK$78 per pack (20 cards).

StickNotes is not what I need however. I can't think of reasons to use it instead of a simple pack of post-it, except that the paper is … cream with rounded corners, that's just me. I found it strange that the paper lean towards white more than cream comparing with other Moleskine papers, maybe they want to distinguish it from Post-it too badly. The glue is a bit too strong so pulling out a piece of StickNote curls up the edge, not very pleasant to me. However the tack strength of glue on objects is just fine. In this case, there is a reason why Post-it is Post-it, their glue is made by special polymer in microspheres which has a unique universal design quality, i.e. strong enough to hold and stick, easy enough for anybody to pull apart. As for the StickNotes price, it is HK$78 per pack.

March 16, 2010

It is super cute and convenient to have a biscuit camera around all the time. My 5 years old son loves it and started to take pictures right away, the only problem is I don't want to disappoint him by showing him the resulting photos.

The camera, made by FUUVI, allows you to choose between a combination of resolution (640x480 vs 320x240) and compression (hi or lo). It takes 25 photos only if you selected hi resolution and low compression, the opposite end allows you to do 275 photos. If you are not used to low quality stuffs, I'd recommend you to do maximum quality settings.

In fact, if you are a Mac user, it is very difficult to grab the pictures you took. Even though a USB cable is provided, the camera doesn't mount as a storage device on your Mac. I had to run Parallels/Windows and install the software that came with the camera in order to download the pictures.

The photos are not bad when viewed in thumbnails, you just have to make sure you shoot in bright light condition and hold the camera very still even after you press the button. Viewing photos in their original size is embarrassing, I honestly think this camera is good for making index prints or collages of events and scenes. See I just gave this camera a purpose, that is to make photo crumbs.

March 12, 2010

I've learned to have a lot more fun by giving myself photo topics during travel, this not only gives myself focus to create series of photos but also helps to understand my habits and routines. You know you can be a zombie carrying no brain and feel plain empty all day long, especially during repeated business trips, but you can also have a great day of personal enjoyment and inner pleasure by focusing your energy.

This shot was taken early Feb this year while I was having breakfast in Freshness Burger in Ebisu, Tokyo. Beautiful blue sky which you can see from the reflection on the table, real flowers in a tiny vase, bright yellow tray, an inspirational message from the stir stick and a shot of regular coffee. What a great scene to start a new day!

Now I have shots of these coffee shots/stops from various cities: Hong Kong, Tokyo, Seoul (I love this one so much), Frankfurt, Cologne, New York, London, Paris, Thailand…. etc. I just have to dig them out from iPhoto. And you know it is interesting that despite simply shooting coffee mugs, I gradually included subtle elements that tell something about the atmosphere and environment, which is a big difference in photography. Talking about mug shots vs mood shots :)

Another travel photography tip, whenever you see a photobooth, jump right in and make a few poses, don't think about it. Coz photobooths are disappearing and you may never get a chance to take those shots again. Besides, photos came out can be a great add-on to your travel log or scrapbook. Check out Ali Edwards post Documenting The Documenting for this great idea. She also found an interesting site called Photobooth.net where you can locate one near you.

March 10, 2010

I didn't check out any camera shops in Seoul, but nice camera straps are like everywhere in, guess what, stationery/book shops. Well, technically there are not that many straps but they are nice, almost all designs are tailored for girls. I envy you girls for the pretty dresses you can wear but I can't. Not for camera straps, I will wear any nice camera straps, like this one from Design Domas (I don't know why their web site is not working).

Another Vivitar ultra wide was spotted, this time by Red Camera in Korea. Sooner or later we will all get sick of 'innovations' of product design by endlessly modifying their color outlook, but before that happens, this creamy pastel blue ultra wide did got my attention.

Behind the camera is a rEDCLOUDY 'dreaming camera case', which comes in a very nice color box, handy as a gift for people who use compact cameras like LCA. It has a small handle but if you like to carry it on shoulder, a replacement strap is included.

March 08, 2010

So far the most comfortable airport to city transportation (more importantly the other way around) I found is by airport bus in both Taiwan and Korea. They have those big red soft couches you can recline and still spacious enough to raise the footrest, I sleep like a baby in those things. You have the perfect right and enough space to recline, not like on a plane with those miserable seats. BTW, check out the recently heated discussion about "Fat vs. Tall - should fat people on airplanes be treated like tall people?" on Slate.

(wow this photo was on Flickr Explore on 8th March 2010! Thanks for liking it)

It was a great trip to Seoul last week, even though 11 meetings in 2 days was a bit stretching to me. I had to move from one hotel to another due to tight budget, that happened after mid-night and I found that those SOTB taxi drivers in Seoul got to choose their customers! They prefer long distance of course. Anyway, next day's ride from city to Incheon Airport by bus was a first class ride to me on those comfy couches. I plan to spend more time on those couches than bed when I'm older, they make you fall asleep a lot quicker.

I can't believe how Michel Jones can churn out so much contents on his blog Circle Rectangle in so little time. You will find his amusing Mijonju show video blogging quite often. The site is full of hacks, tips and tricks, latest toy camera offer etc, best of all, he has an online store where you can buy instead of a "for your eyes only" site like mine.

In case you wonder, he is an English speaking Chinese Italian living in Japan.... or Japanese speaking Chinese with somebody Italian in his family tree... or well.

Oh gee, Polaroid is putting its logo on Fujifilm camera! From what I heard, Polaroid will release an analog camera for the US market based on Fujifilm's Instax mini 7S, they will probably have the film available also under Polaroid's brand. Fujifilm factory is not going to increase its production capacity significantly however, which means camera and film shortage will become more serious this year as the Polaroid branded Instax is released. I can't believe it, the film demand is obvious because of amazing sales momentum of the white and chocolate instax mini 7s cameras these 2 years, Fujifilm should have good enough projection to increase production capacity for its customers.

I just came back from Korea, the day before my return flight I found a limited edition Instax mini 7S Hello Kitty being sold in Kyobo book store. The one I saw was chocolate but there is the white version as well on Fujifilm Korea web site, so I guess white is more popular and it was sold out faster. It is priced at 125,000 won, about 30% more expensive than a normal version, still I grabbed two despite the fact that I don't know what I will do with them. Looks like this is available in Korea only, I also saw a brown fake leather camera bag made specifically for this camera by Fujifilm Korea, but it was gone the minute I turned back to look for it.

Walter Isaacson: Steve JobsLove hearing the stories all over again, some of them especially what happened in the past few years are new to me. Most importantly it is a closer portrait of Steve than all other books about him. Isaacson recorded audios during his interview with Steve, check out 60 minutes special and you will hear Steve's own voice. RIP Steve. (****)